24.5.1.3 Using WER with PDB to create a Windows crashdump

Program Database (PDB) files (with file name suffix
pdb) are included in ZIP Archive
distributions (but not MSI distributions) of MySQL. These
files provide information for debugging your MySQL
installation in the event of a problem.

The PDB file contains more detailed information about
mysqld and other tools that enables more
detailed trace and dump files to be created. You can use these
with WinDbg or Visual Studio to debug
mysqld.

Note

The older Dr. Watson debugging tool was
removed in Microsoft Vista, with WinDbg
being a common alternative.

To use WinDbg, either install the full Windows Driver Kit
(WDK) or install the standalone version.

Important

The .exe and .pbd
files must be an exact match (both version number and MySQL
server edition) or WinDBG will complain while attempting to
load the symbols.

To generate a minidump mysqld.dmp,
enable the core-file option
under the [mysqld] section in my.ini.
Restart the MySQL server after making these changes.

Create a directory to store the generated files, such as
c:\symbols

Determine the path to your windbg.exe
executable using the Find GUI or from the command line,
for example: dir /s /b windbg.exe -- a
common default is C:\Program Files\Debugging
Tools for Windows (x64)\windbg.exe

Launch windbg.exe giving it the paths
to mysqld-debug.exe,
mysqld.pdb,
mysqld.dmp, and the source code.
Alternatively, pass in each path from the WinDbg GUI. For
example: